Intelligence-Led Policing and Problem-Oriented Policing - Essay Example

Intelligence led policing and problem oriented policing - an assessment of their compatibility in working together for crime reduction and preventionProblem oriented policing is a model of policing that was evolved in 1980's as a result of widespread criticism on the standard model of policing in reducing crimes, where the strategies were devised on the basis of crimes and the exact problems behind these crimes were overlooked. Problem oriented policing model focused more on the problems that caused crimes and development of strategies to solve these problems so as to reduce crimes. Intelligence led policing model is the outcome of increased globalisation and easy access to different countries and development of information technology, which resulted in more organized crimes, which had cross border foundations. It became necessary for the police force to use criminal intelligence the crime analysts to find out the criminals and all information about them to solve the problem. Both the models have got its own distinctive features and the present essay is intended to analyse these features in an effort to see whether both the models are compatible with each other. There was wide spread criticism of the way of policing adopted through 1970's to 1980. During this period policing was more concentrated on crimes and paid little attention to the problems that created a situation for such cases. Their activities were mainly divided into two. Preventive patrol and patrol in response to emergency calls. These activities could not bring crime control. Police was using random patrol, follow up of criminal investigations and sudden actions as the basis of their investigation. It was found that such a system was less efficient because there were many community problems, which did not have a criminal background and arrests and prosecutions did not solve most of the problems. The number of arrests did not increase as the crime increased, mainly because of the lack of infrastructure to keep and prosecute these people. Moreover, it was felt that most of the community problems without a criminal nature could be solved without any arrest through mere police involvement to address those problems. According to Goldstein, the police were more concentrated on their own internal politics and management and they were little concerned about their actual duties (Goldstein, 1979). He initiated a change in the usual policing by urging them to concentrate on the problems that lead to most of the crimes and to solve these problems so as to take out crime from its roots. He called it problem-oriented policing and this drive was internationally accepted and has been very effective in crime control (Weisburd et. al., 2007). Problem oriented policing involves analysis of similar incidents by the crime analysts as well as experienced police officials in a effort to understand something new from these problems so as to device strategy to deal with those problems (Weisburd et. al., 2007). The system has a preventive nature, which incorporates the use of public and private agencies and community for crime reduction or its prevention. Once a strategy is developed it would be implemented and evaluated and this would be reported so that it would form the basis for developing a pool of knowledge that would help police in their profession (Goldstein, 2001). So there would not be any secrecy in dealing with each and every case. The problems would be openly discussed and the strategy developed would be published in the community. Cooperation of community and other government agencies were sought to implement strategies and to solve the problems so as to reduce incidents of crimes. Based on this idea Eck And Spelman (1987) developed SARA model of problem oriented policing. SARA denoted four steps in its operation namely, Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment. Scanning in the process in which police identify problems in their area that are leading to crimes. The next step "Analysis" involves, analysis of these problems so as to device suitable strategies or "Response" In the third step response is implemented. In the last step an "Assessment" of the strategy in solving the problem and reduction of crime would be done. In this procedure, the police would be learning everything about the offenders as well as victims. They would also study why they are committing such mistakes. The relation of a particular event with other events and even unrelated events would be examined. The most important aspect of this system is that, finally, the police would be assessing themselves, whether they have done a good work or not. Studies have revealed that such system has reduced fear of crime, homicides involving the use of fire arms, violent crimes, property crimes, prostitution, drug trafficking etc. Thus its fame spread throughout the world and was the most favoured policing system in America (Weisburd et. al., 2007). The most recent model in policing is intelligence led policing. Intelligence-led policing is defined as "a business model and managerial philosophy where data analysis and crime intelligence are pivotal to an objective, decision-making framework that facilitates crime and problem reduction, disruption and prevention through both strategic management and effective enforcement strategies that target prolific and serious offenders" (Ratcliff, 2008). Intelligence led policing originated in UK in 1990's. It has its base in community policing and problem oriented policing. It is now accepted worldwide as the best policing system for crime control especially in United States. It involves identification of chronic offenders and then devising plans based on that information. This requires the use of criminal intelligence in planning operational strategy. It incorporates the most recent research findings and developments in information and communication technology for a more targeted and preventive mode of policing. Some people in law enforcement believe that intelligence led policing had been in practise for ages. But the difference is that intelligence was used as a part of the game in whole policing and it was used in a random and insignificant manner. It was used only to gather evidences to support some of the cases and the way it was used differed in different cases. Public considered criminal intelligence as a secret activity carried out by police officers. For the police officers it was just an activity, which they did along with their main job of 'policing'. It did not form a basis for decision making for any strategies. But this situation changed mainly as a result of 9/11 attack in United States. People as well as police understood that intelligence has a great role to play to prevent such organized crimes. In a world that is bursting with the development of information and technology, police could have done more to prevent such a situation if they had used their intelligence in a better manner. Crime analysis and criminal intelligence slowly began to gain momentum and has now developed into a model for policing termed as intelligence led policing. Thus the reason for the development of intelligence led policing could be divided into three: 1. The role that the police was playing was inefficient in tackling crimes of the modern period in which the criminals were more organized in their trans-national strategies for crime. The integration among police was very less, whereas that among criminals were more and lacked any geographical boundary. 2. When the police failed to make the best use of resources available to them the criminals used the developments in information technology and increased globalisation as a scenario were they could multiply their business. 3. Both the public as well as police felt that it would be better to deal with criminals than giving more emphasis for crimes. The development in the information technology has a great role to play in the development of intelligence led policing. The police used to collect a large number of data for the use of other governmental departments as part of their job. They found that the data could be used by them for the purpose of decision-making. Slowly a group termed as Crime analysts emerged within police and along with the help of middle level police could provide a better view of the problems involved in crime to the senior management. The pressure for efficient policing began to increase throughout the world as a result of increase crimes and terrorism and in UK all the police decisions had to pass a risk management assessment. For this purpose, police needed access to more information and had to use intelligence to avoid any mistake from their part in taking decisions. They restrained themselves from acting based on pure intuition and their style of operation began to change to intelligence led policing (Ratcliff, 2008). Towards the end of 20th century, globalisation, internet, etc initiated more organized and trans-national crimes. So the police of different nations had to collaborate to prevent such crimes. They could not keep themselves isolated in their jurisdictions. This demanded a complete restructuring of the police department and a high demand for new models that could solve such international crimes. This resulted in sprouting up of a number of international agencies such as Department of Homeland Security (US), the UK Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) etc, which used intelligence to identify criminals. This is another reason for the development of intelligence led policing (Ratcliff, 2008). In the year 1997, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary declared the core theme of intelligence led policing (Ratcliff, 2008).. They are as follows: 1. There would be a Director of intelligence who would give leadership to the intelligence led policing and promote the model. 2. A strategy that explains the meaning of the term 'proactivity' would be published and would be known to the whole force. 3. Criteria for measuring the effectiveness of introduction of criminal intelligence would be developed, so as to assess their role in crime control. 4. Finally, partnership from all, the local bodies or agencies would be sought by the police to effectively implement the strategies of intelligence led policing. The most important threat that the world is facing today is terrorism and in order to combat this, the reactive models of policing are highly insufficient. It requires a proactive strategy to deal with such crimes. So the most important advantage of intelligence led policing is that it has proved to be a model that would prevent terrorism. It would allow decision makers to mange risks in a better manner. Thus they could act effectively to prevent crime, which was the motto of the police, when modern policing was initiated in the year 1829. This requires a merging of the activities of crime analysts and criminal intelligence so as to make the picture of the criminal environment more clearly visible and understandable by the police. It is well known that intelligence led policing requires a lot of commitment from the part of police officers. They have to keep themselves away from the old police philosophies and those methods. They have to consider that it is possible to reduce crime through the principles of criminal intelligence and should have confidence in the recommendations of the intelligence staff. The main problem in the implementation of intelligent led policing is that it is very difficult for the police officers to have faith in intelligence process alone for crime detection and control. Many people believe that there is already a flooding of information in the police department through various sources and it would be difficult to analyse each of these information and take actions on the basis of that. Another problem is that, because of the secrecy in behaviour, there would be a greater chance of abuse of police power. There would be less distinction between domestic and national policing and there would be greater chance of political interference (Brodeur and Dupont, 2006). In an attempt to evaluate the efficiency of intelligence led policing in combating crime Ratcliff (2008) identified that the model in still in the stage of evolution and would require some more time to get matured so as to evaluate its effect. Under these circumstances it would be better to compare the different dimensions of problem oriented and intelligence led policing to understand whether they are compatible with each other. According to Ratcliff (2008) problem oriented policing is a fully evolved model of policing where as intelligence led policing is still in the state of evolution. More time is required to develop fully and as such not in a position to be the single model of policing. When the former is oriented around problems, the latter give more focus on criminal groups and other serious offenders. A system or hierarchy might not be followed in problem oriented one; whereas the top down hierarchy would be present in the intelligence led policing. In the problem oriented policing since there is more involvement of public or the community, the decision of the priorities might not be entrusted on police management. However in the intelligence led policing the decision would be taken by police management based on the crime analysis and criminal intelligence. When the former deals with only problems causing crime, the latter deals with group of criminals and offenders. While problem oriented policing is generally limited to a particular jurisdiction, the other one is a collaborative approach of police of different nations. Both these models would be difficult to be adopted by people who are having more faith and confidence in standard policing. Both would result in the reduction of crimes. Thus after scanning through literature it could be understood that problem oriented policing and intelligence policing need not be separated from each other. Since intelligence led policing is still growing, and require support of a model that is closer to it, it would be appropriate to combine these two models for policing for better benefits. Problem oriented policing would be more beneficial in a community or in a small jurisdiction where police and community could join their hands to reduce crime. But when it comes to national security or international crimes and criminals, intelligence led policing would be able to perform better, since in order to identify such problem itself, criminal intelligence would be essential and there is a need to keep a greater secrecy in these matters. It might not be possible to involve community or any other agencies in these aspects. Thus although both models are different in their modes of crime reduction, they complement each other and the result would be much better than when one model alone is practised. In other words there would be a synergistic effect that would increase the efficiency of modern policing for crime prevention and control if these two models are combined. References Brodeur J. P. and Dupont, B. (2006)"Knowledge Workers or 'Knowledge' Workers," Policing Society, Vol. 16, no. 1 (March 2006): 7-26. Eck, John E. and William Spelman. (1987). Problem solving: Problem-oriented policing in Newport News. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum. Goldstein, H. (1979). 'Improving policing: A problem-oriented approach'. Crime and Delinquency 24: 236-58. Goldstein, H. (1990). Problem-oriented policing. New York: McGraw-Hill. Goldstein, H. (2001) 'What is Problem-Oriented Policing' [online] Available at: http://www.popcenter.org/about/p=whatiscpop (accessed on 4/3/2009). Ratcliff, J. H. (2008) 'Intelligence-Led Policing' Willan Publishing: Cullompton, Devon. Weisburd, D.; Telep, C. W.; Hinkle, J. C.; Eck, J. E. (2007) The effects of problem-oriented policing on Crime and disorder, National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice and a stipend from the Nordic Campbell Centre. Read More